How Holland Produces The Cleanest Vodka In The World

This Is Holland's Secret For Producing The Cleanest Vodka In The World

The stereotype of the brawny Ruski drinking vodka straight from the bottle exists for a reason. Our friends in the former U.S.S.R. actually created the spirit. The origin of archaic vodka dates back to 9th century Russia. This first attempt at the grain-based spirit was extremely harsh, as distillation wouldn’t happen for another hundred years. Since then, several countries have tried their hand at distilling grain-, potato- and even grape-based vodkas but an old distillery in the Schiedam region of Holland is widely credited as the first to elevate the blank canvas spirit to a more palatable level.

The Nolet distillery opened 325 years ago. At that time, family patriarch Joannes Nolet was one of many distillers in the area due to its close proximity to the Maas River and the North Sea shipping port. Over the next three centuries, the Nolet’s endured World Wars, prohibition, economic downturns and dozens of other trends before hitting the proverbial spirits jackpot when Carolus Nolet Sr. created the recipe for what we now know as Ketel One Vodka in 1983. It took the 10th generation Nolet seven years to perfect the recipe he had in his head, because until he’d done it, there was no blueprint.

With vodka essentially being a combination of water, grain and alcohol, one would think that it is a simple process to create a drinkable and clean spirit. That isn’t exactly accurate.

“You don’t have to add water or agents to [vodka], which, in fact makes it even harder to make,” says master mixologist Dale DeGroff a.k.a. King Cocktail. There are so many stages and so much to pay attention to when distilling vodka. Alcohol is a friendly molecule. Chemically, it wants to wants to link up with whatever happens nearby, be it good or bad flavors. If you have grain that’s mildewed, you are going to find that aroma and flavor all the way through the finished product.”

The Nolet family has perfected their process by sourcing local ingredients and creating their vodka in one facility from start to finish. It is a thorough, day-to-day management process that begins when the grain arrives to the day it is used, through fermentation and distillation, all the way to the bottling and packaging of the vodka. And even after that detailed procedure, no bottle of Ketel One is distributed without the batch first being tasted and approved by a Nolet family member. This kind of care yields a clean taste, aroma and extra long finish that are not as common as they should be in the spirits world.

“Not to name any names but there are larger commercial brands that buy their alcohol and rectify it with spring water or specially treated water or they’ll buy from a large grain distributor,” says DeGroff. Rectifying — or adjusting the product after it has already been distilled — is not just done by economy vodka brands; it is also somewhat prevalent with higher end vodka spirits. In layman's terms, all of us have drunk vodka that was not distilled by the company whose name appears on the label.